Give the Edmonton Oilers credit after they kept swinging in their quest to sign a college free agent this spring.

With their fourth swing at the plate, the Oilers signed Yale captain/forward Andrew Miller to a one-year, entry-level contract on Wednesday.

The Oilers tried hard to sign Western Michigan captain/defenceman Danny DeKeyser, but he opted to stay close to home, going with the Detroit Red Wings. Right now, he’s surprisingly played an average of 17-1/2 minutes a game the last six games.

Edmonton also went after Quinnipiac University goalie Eric Hartzell, but the Pittsburgh Penguins got him.

They were seriously in the hunt for six-foot-four Yale centre Antoine Laganiere, Miller’ teammate, who was at the Oilers prospect camp last summer, but the Anaheim Ducks grabbed him.

Miller, 24, was the most outstanding player in the NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament when Yale knocked off Quinnipiac in the final.

And he’s not five-foot-eight and 170 pounds as the crack hockeydb.com website says. He is five-foot-10 and 180 pounds, not exactly what the Oilers are looking for — they want to get bigger at forward – but Oilers new GM Craig MacTavish also knows that playing an uptempo game with skill is important.

“He’s not big, but he’s strong on the puck and he’s got great hockey sense. He’s a real cerebral player,” said MacTavish.

Miller, who had a breakaway goal against Hartzell to make it 3-0 in the third period of the final game of the Frozen Four at the Consol Energy Center, won’t join the Oilers’ Oklahoma City Barons American Hockey League affiliate right now as they try to hold on to a playoff spot in the AHL’s Western Conference. But he’ll be at the Oilers prospect camp on July 2, then the rookie camp and the main camp in September. He has been told he’ll likely start in the AHL next fall.